It's Better in Italian - A short/documentary project by Jordan Ledy

[Foxtrot94]

Studying director Jordan Ledy once spent some time in Florence and was surprised to see that every foreign media, be it shows, movies, cartoons, whatever, was entirely dubbed in Italian instead of subbed. He grew fascinated by the Italian culture of dubbing as he found out that here, it's not just a job. It's a tradition and an art. So he decided to make a documentary about it, to give the world of Italian dubbers, widely renown to be the best in the world, some more visibility as well as an insight into the dub culture here. Link to the trailer above.

Lemme explain. Italy was among the very first countries to dub movies back after World War Two, out of necessity cause the vast majority of the population was illiterate so subs weren't an option. Since then, it grew to be a tradition and an integral part of our culture, to the point of getting the reputation of being the best in the world. So much so that, especially in the seventies and the eighties, directors looked up and praised the Italian dubs of their movies, even preferring it to the original version. A glaring example was Stanley Kubrick who, when his films were shown in Venice, he always insisted it was the Italian dubbed version.

Now, I've always known this stuff but getting to see it from a foreigner point of view, a question popped up in my head, which is something I've never really given that much thought to, and always kinda taken for granted. Is it really that strange that all foreign productions are dubbed, as opposed to having subtitles?

 

[Erian1Mortal]

It's kinda like in Germany, everyone knows the voice of Vin Diesel or Nicolas Cage but pretty much no one knows the name of the guy who does the voice. There pretty much are no movies that are not dubbed here in germany by the way.
The only dubs that I watch are movies, most of my games I tend to play in english or the original dub since german game dubs tend to be pretty bad. At least most of the time, there are some rare gems here and there.

A question from my point of view is, what countries don't dub?
I know china and japan rarely dub american or european movies (someone once told me it's because it's not possible).

 

[Lain]

I know china and japan rarely dub american or european movies (someone once told me it's because it's not possible).

What is this nonsense? Of course Japan dubs foreign movies.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Yeah that's the thing, I've always taken for granted that dubbing of foreign movies was a thing for pretty much every country, English speaking ones included.

 

[Viper]

Croatia only dubs stuff that is intended for children, as preschoolers can't read. For the best, somehow the quality of it all is only really good for cartoons.
They once tried to dub a soap opera with results so disastrous the public laughed them out.

 

[Erian1Mortal]

What is this nonsense? Of course Japan dubs foreign movies.

Seems like I was mistaken.
Could be that they simply show the movies in the original dub in the cinema then?
Thanks for the correction btw!

Yeah that's the thing, I've always taken for granted that dubbing of foreign movies was a thing for pretty much every country, English speaking ones included.

Yeah I took that for granted for a long time but in the last few years I got more and more ****ed of at how the industry dubs stuff here in germany, outside of actual movies, most animated things or games are crappy dubbed (unless it's a pixar/dreamworks/disney movie).
Keep in mind that's my opinion, others might not share it.

 

[Foxtrot94]

most of my games I tend to play in english or the original dub since german game dubs tend to be pretty bad. At least most of the time, there are some rare gems here and there.

On the contrary, here I must say I'm pretty happy with the dubs, and not rarely I've come to prefer them to the originals. For example, the following, just the ones on the top of my head right now.

Francesco Pannofino (legendary VA here, one of the veterans) as Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch in AC4 (1:10 - 1:23):

Luca Ward (another legendary veteran) as Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell series (2:55 - 3:20):

Claudio Moneta as Deathstroke, Commander Shepard and Jak (3:17 - 3:20, 0:44 - 0:48 for the first two respectively):

 

[absolitude]

there are many countries that dub everything even the title, i mean they changed the title it to their language.. from what i can tell from dubbing like example russian dubs too, and i like how it sounds exactly like the respective actors.. it is a really fine job..

i won't like a movie or any other media dubbed, but from a positive point of view when a country dub stuffs, it shows respect and pride to their own, much like nationalism..

 

[Erian1Mortal]

there are many countries that dub everything even the title,

Or you have title changes... like in Germany:
Captain America: Winter Soldier became Captain America: The Return of the first Avenger....
Or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen became transformers: Die Rache (Translatet that only means: Transformers: The Revenge).

It happens quite frequently, which quite frankly annoying sometimes.

 

[Lain]

It happens quite frequently, which quite frankly annoying sometimes.

There's also a follow up video to that one, but with English titles weirdly dubbed into Japanese.

 

[absolitude]

Or you have title changes... like in Germany:
Captain America: Winter Soldier became Captain America: The Return of the first Avenger....
Or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen became transformers: Die Rache (Translatet that only means: Transformers: The Revenge).

It happens quite frequently, which quite frankly annoying sometimes.

lol, yes, that too

 

[Lain]

There's this one Japanese VN series called "ひぐらしのなく頃に" but the English Localisation called it "When They Cry"...

In the immortal words of one anime reviewer..."Who the **** are "They"?"